The Governor's Office and news reports omitted Mack's other roles as President of Pt Public Policy, a sister company to Pt Capital that focuses on public policy consulting, and principal of Andrew Mack and Associates, a boutique consulting operation based in Anchorage. Mack and Associates received a $50,000 contract from the Governor's Office to produce an Arctic Oil and Gas Master Plan.

They also failed to note his role as a public board member for the Alaska Board of Marine Pilots. When Mack applied to serve in February 2012 he indicated that he or family members could be affected financially from his being in this role. Mack did not to go on to explain the "potential financial benefit."

The Governor appointed a man with significant interests in the areas he will oversee. Mack admitted that himself in 2012 in applying for a much smaller role.

Private equity underwriters generally hold an equity stake in their firm and its offerings. Government has been supremely bad in making these known, often acting like no conflict exists. Mack has much to declare in regard to any holdings in Pt Capital, Pt Public Policy and any of their holdings. However, in the shadowy world of PEUs most things remain secret.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

The Alaska Dispatch Newsreported on a lawsuit against its owner Alice Rogoff-Rubenstein:

The
former president and editor of Alaska Dispatch News has filed a lawsuit
against Alaska Dispatch Publishing LLC and its owner, Alice Rogoff,
asserting she failed to pay money he says was promised to him.

Tony
Hopfinger now lives in Chicago and hasn't been involved in the
operations of the newspaper since the end of 2015. The suit was filed on
Wednesday in state Superior Court in Anchorage.

Hopfinger
co-founded the news website Alaska Dispatch in 2008 with his then-wife
Amanda Coyne. Rogoff purchased a majority of Alaska Dispatch Publishing
LLC in 2009, and Hopfinger and Coyne each retained 5 percent of the
company.

Hopfinger asserts he did not wish to retain his 5% ownership of the company when Rogoff sought to buy the Anchorage Daily News from McClatchy.

Hopfinger approached Rogoff to
discuss the buyout in April 2014, the suit says. That's when, it
continues, Rogoff wrote a promise to Hopfinger on a cocktail
napkin that read: "I agree to pay Tony $100K at end of each calendar
year (beginning '14) for 10 years."

Buying someone's equity stake is different than paying them a salary for services provided.

The question is now does Mr. Hopfinger's 5% equity stake fit in the complex corporate structure Rogoff likely learned from her PEU husband?

A
company called AK Publishing LLC now owns Alaska Dispatch News' assets,
and is entirely owned by Rogoff through another company called The Moon
and the Stars LLC.

Rogoff is married to billionaire David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group.

Alaska Dispatch News did not report their paper is bleeding cash Nor did it mention their $700,000 lawsuit against McClathy for not fulfilling contractual commitments in the sale of the Anchorage Daily News to Rogoff's Alaska Dispatch.

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Some big shareholders such as Okumus Fund Management have pounced on
Carlyle shares. Okumus began buying Carlyle shares late last year and
now owns more than $100 million.

“We don’t agree with how the
public market values the company,” said Tim McAlea, director of research
at Okumus. “Over the long run, the earnings will grow more with the
assets under management and the fees Carlyle earns. Through the cycle,
Carlyle will make a lot of money for its shareholders.”

Ahmet Okumus decreased its stake in Carlyle Group LP (NASDAQ:CG)
by 6.95% based on its latest 2016Q1 regulatory filing with the SEC.
Okumus Fund Management Ltd sold 532,678 shares as the company’s stock
rose 8.48% with the market.

It wouldn't be the first time an investment expert screamed buy while selling. We'll see what Okumus Q2 filing shows in regard to Carlyle.

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Former California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) CEO
Federico Buenrostro was sentenced Tuesday by a federal judge to four and
a half years in prison for accepting more than $200,000 in bribes
trying to steer investments.

Buenrostro pleaded guilty to fraud and bribery charges two years ago,
saying he started taking bribes around 2005 to try and get CalPERS staff
members to make investment decisions that helped Alfred Villalobos, an
investment manager and former board member of the fund. The judge called
the case "seriously troubling", and said it reflected a "spectacular breach of trust for the most venal of purposes, which is self-enrichment."

CalPERS owned 5% of The Carlyle Group at the time CEO Buenrostro started taking bribes to steer investments to former board member Alfred Villalobos, an investment placement agent.

Carlyle settled a New York pension pay to play investigation in 2009. One has to wonder if this was accepted behavior among PEUs and their part owners. A NYT article on Carlyle's $20 million settlement mentioned CalPERS Villalobos.

In 2007, Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president,
introduced Mr. DiNapoli to Alfred Villalobos, who runs Arvco Capital, a
Nevada placement agency. Seven months later, an Arvco client landed a
$10 million investment from the state pension fund. Mr. DiNapoli’s staff
has said he was not aware that Mr. Ferrer was a paid consultant to
Arvco, and the relationship was never disclosed.

Even though CalPERS CEO Buenrostro started taking bribes in 2005 his most egregious behavior happened in 2008-2009. Bloomberg reported:

After Calpers’ legal and investment offices declined to sign a letter,
Villalobos and Buenrostro allegedly conspired to create a series of
fraudulent letters that were transmitted to Apollo in 2008 and 2009,
according to the indictment.

Villalobos committed suicide five weeks before his trial was to start in 2015. Thus the voice that could have shed light on both sides of the CalPERS situation was silenced. It's amazing how PEU money washing gets swept under a rug with a huge settlement. It almost feels like a bribe to public officials to make their former bribes to public pension officials go away.

Insider Architect of the Implosion

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